Page 114 of Dare To Fall

I kiss his hip. “I guess you deserved an orgasm after all the ones you gave me last night.”

Eli peers at me from beneath his arm. “No regrets?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I wanted you to touch me. It wasn’t the same as Christmas. I might have been tipsy, but I was in control.”

He’s silent for a moment, studying my expression. “I’m still not going to fuck you.”

His attention jumps to my bare breasts as I sit up between his spread legs. “But you said—”

“I know what I said.” Eli raises his upper half off the bed, resting back on his elbows. “We have the rest of the week to talk and get to know each other. Do you want to spend all of it in bed?”

A sense of vulnerability washes over me at his words. I grab the blanket and tug it around my body. “Don’t you want me that way anymore?”

Eli runs a hand through his hair. “Of course, I do. I’m fucking hard as a rock around you every second of every fucking day. You invade my dreams, my fantasies. You’re so deep under my skin that it’s like you’ve become a part of me.”

I stare at him open-mouthed. “So, you do still want to have sex with me?”

He flops down onto his back, laughing quietly. “I’ve created a monster.”

I snatch up one of the pillows and hit him in the chest with it. “I am not.”

He pulls it out of my hands before I can hit him again. “Maybe you’re just addicted to me.”

I am, but I haven’t admitted it out loud to him. Do I really want him to know what kind of power he has over me?

I climb off the bed and wrap the blanket around me like a toga.

Eli doesn’t move from the mattress. “Where are you going?”

I stop at the door and glance back at him. “I’m going to take a shower and get dressed.”

“Ari?” His call halts me.

Footsteps sound behind me, but I don’t turn. “You drive me crazy.”

He presses against my back, winding an arm around my waist. “I know. But I don’t know how to be any other way.”

I sigh. “If you want to talk, then we can do it over breakfast.”

“Thank you.” His lips touch the side of my neck, and I shiver.

My stomach flutters in response. “For what?”

Eli places a kiss on my shoulder this time. “Not letting me starve.”

Clutching the blanket to my breasts, I glance at him. “Don’t get too comfortable. The week isn’t over yet.”

Chapter 77

Eli

Fingers slide through my hair, and I look up from the sketch in front of me. I smile at Ari as she moves past where I’m sitting at the kitchen table to reach the stove.

We’ve settled into an odd routine over the past three days. Days are spent talking and learning about each other. Our interests, our childhood, our dreams for the future. Nights are spent learning other things. How to touch, where to touch, to give the most pleasure.

We still haven’t had sex, much to her annoyance. I don’t know why I’m putting it off. I want her, all of her, but something is stopping me from taking that last step. That doesn’t stop her from trying to change my mind, though.

“Hungry?”

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